Saturday, November 24, 2012

What Do The Puritanical Really Want? Revenge!

Giles Fraser has a very insightful essay in the Guardian about the right wing evangelical faction of the Church of England that successfully scuttled a vote on women bishops in the church's General Synod. Here's a sample:

For the essence of the puritan mindset is revenge – as Nietzsche
accurately described it, the revenge of the bullied who are
subconsciously getting back at those who once made their life a misery.
As the comedy puritan Malvolio rages at the end of Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night: "I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you."

So what can
be done? Argument is pretty useless. Conservative religious people are
generally locked in a self-referencing worldview where truth is about
strict internal coherence rather than any reaching out to reality.
That's why they treat the Bible like some vast jigsaw – its truth
residing in a complex process of making the pieces fit together and not
with the picture it creates.
So rather than laugh at them or argue with them, the best thing is probably ignore them.

I've been making this point for years. What these apocalyptic legalists want most is not universal love and peace, but the reward of seeing their enemies bound in chains and thrown into the unquenchable fire. That is the essence of everything from angry subway preachers to fire and brimstone mega-church sermons on teevee. "Our God will vindicate us and revenge us upon all of our enemies!"
I agree with Fraser that these folk are largely insulated from reality by a self referencing world view where it matters more that all the syllogisms fit like cogwheels than what the larger picture describes. To me that larger picture describes a desolation.

In largely secular and religiously liberal England, I would imagine that all this appears simply marginal and freakish. In the USA, this is a much more serious matter. The USA is one of the few countries in the world (along with Saudi Arabia and Iran) to have a politically powerful religious fundamentalist movement. Its power and influence may be waning after more than 30 years of hegemony over the political and cultural debates, but it is still formidable, especially on the state and local levels. The USA is secularizing despite that movement's best efforts (you could argue that right wing religious influence accelerated that secularization and spawned a serious backlash against all religious life from Sufis and Quakers to Southern Baptists and Wahabists).

I've long argued, and continue to argue, that fundamentalist religious movements are ultimately secular. They are not about religion or spirituality at all. In fact, fundamentalists of all types rarely discuss religion, and certainly do not speculate about it. Religion for them is a settled issue. There's nothing to discuss. Fundamentalist movements are about identity, about drawing a clear bright line between who's in and who's out. Sorting out who's in the tribe and who is not is a very worldly political issue and not a religious one.

24 comments:

Fundamentalism is not as bleak, at least in its history, as you paint. Just as in all 'movements' there are the unreasonable, fundamentalist Christians were the ones, at least in England, that drove the social reform of the country, especially in the 1800's. George Muller, John Wesley, George Whitefield (I know Wesley and Whitefield are not strictly 19 century), William Booth, Charles Spurgeon, Josephine Butler to name a few. Each did wonderful, social action, loving others, changing a nation. And each were fundamental in their biblical beliefs. There are people in the church today who are like these and yet remain what is called fundamentalist in their approach to the Bible.

Andy --I wholeheartedly disagree. Fundamentalism is always bleak, always a +/- discussion with no room for a third way --and those you mention weren't of the stripe of fundamentalists that are wreaking havoc in our time.

What concerns me with Giles Fraser's conclusion is that it is probably best to ignore them. Ignoring them is what got the CofE in to its predicament right now. Ignoring them is what brought us the Bush and Reagan tenures in the White House. Certainly the best model of approach that I can think of is that of Louie Crew --a constant loving engagement.

We must speak out. Now. Constantly. We cannot wait until they encroach on something dear to us --we must not ignore their rhetoric, actions, political moves and lobbying.... We will already be living for another generation under one of the most conservative and extremist Supreme Courts in our history as a nation.

My concern is against painting everyone with the same brush. Just as many fundamentalist / conservative christians tend to generally believe to be a 'liberal' believer is to effectively throw out the Bible, not all fundamentalist christians (and by fundamentalist I mean the more literalist Bible believers) are bigots, misogynists and intolerant. Wesley Wesley remained thoroughly orthodox in his theology, and he expected his followers to do the same. He described himself as a man of one book, emphasizing his submission to the primary authority of the written Word of God. Is that the definition of a fundamentalist? (that is not a sarcastic comment - just wanting to see if I am defining what a fundamentalist is in the same way). I am from England. I can point to many clergy who are men of one book, and submit to the word of God 'literally' and yet are working hard in their communities for equality - loving their neighbor, declaring the truth of Jesus' love to a world in need.

Not trying to start an argument - and I understand what Margaret has said in her comment - but I wanted to express what I have seen and experienced by 'conservative' clergy who are not the normal stereotype that Giles writes about (although I utterly acknowledge they exist!)

Wesley may have been "orthodox" (a word whose meaning seems so have shifted a lot over the past century, depending who claims to define what is "orthodox"), but I can't see him happily in the same company with the likes of everyone from Scott Lively to Bishop Jensen in Sydney. I certainly could not see Wesley in the same company as Christian Dominionists and Millenialists in the USA.On the contrary, I think he would have been horrified.

I get the impression that fundamentalism is a marginal phenomenon in England (though I could be wrong). It is anything but marginal here in the USA. It is inescapable. It probably would not attract so much resentment except that fundamentalists here claim to know what is best for everyone and seek to legislate their views for all despite the desires and opinions of their fellow citizens who do not share their particular sectarian view of the world.

hello all I stumbled upon this post during my daily blog readings..hope to be allowed to make these comments.

I was raised fundamentalist, both baptistic and pentecostal varieties; My Biblical and Divinity degrees were from those ontexts. I am 60, but for the first 32 years that was the christianity I knew but did not accept alot of it. Some years back I also had the honor of being a white man who walked alongside some first nations christians...I taught them some, they taught me alot.

One of the reasons why Margaret is so down on Fundamentalism is because of the unigue nature of her ministry i.e. on the rez. There the bad effects of Fundam is much more fucosed and destructive, than in the larger world. In the world, Fundam can cause problems, but the world is large enough, varied enough, and stong enough to limit the bad effects. On the rez where personal death and cultural destuction is a major player, Fundam is far more dangerous. A couple of examples.

Fundam tends to be exclusive. theirs is the only true religion; other christians are often seen as backsliden or heretics. Other traditional spiritualities are seen as pagan.

the gov and church have a long tradition of trying to destroy native culture and spirituality. On the rez today, it is fundam that is the major outside influence in this regard. To be Christian means one has to give of being NDN (indian) and the destruction of their culture is very harmful to them.

Secondly, Fundam tend to be focused on first steps....the major sermon is getting right with God and accepting Jesus thus excaping hell. even in the churches which are full of their believers, this remains the primary and often, exclusive message. Even at funerals, they cant resist laying on the fire excape religion

On the rez, funerals are constant and where fundam preachers preside, there is often the "renounce your culture and get saved...and if the one who has crossed over was not concidered a believer or died as "a sinner", the audience will often get the "fire excape stuff".

Come now, no one really believes that fundamentalists (I prefer not to capitalize that) are really defined by those 1905 "Fundamentals" pamphlet, do they?

It's not about Biblical interpretation ("literal", or not).

It's about religious chauvinism: the claim that having THE TRUTH gives one the authority to JUDGE others (and having judged, then punish).

The Inquisition was centuries before "The Fundamentals" pamphlet was created, but it's an archetype of fundamentalism (and see re Maoism for an example of atheistic fundamentalism: no god---well, Mao was like a god---necessary to judge/punish!)

Conversely, see the Amish: can there be any doubt that their Christian beliefs adhere to the Fundamentals? Nevertheless, if they judge others, it's only to FLEE them. Not to rule&punish. Thus, they are not fundamentalists. Rev Andy, HTH.

Oh, forgot to say: rather conspicuous that this, um, large street preacher's Damnable-Sin List does NOT include Gluttony, eh? [Nor, need I add, the PRIDE necessary to broadcast such a list in the first place]

danielj, --it is not just in the unique context of the Reservations that fundamentalism can be so destructive. I have sat at besides in places as disparate as Oregon, So Cal, NYC, VA and watched people be terrified watching a loved one die because they 'had not been saved.'

If you want to see destructive fundamentalism --look at the rise of the Tea Party in our political system and etc. Not just biblical literalism --but the rejection of science and on the larger scale anti-intellectualism and racism.

In this, Counterlight is correct --these movements are not religious movements --they are about perceived wrongs and revenge --about identity --and political power.

In any event, I still see Fraser's conclusion of ignoring them as very flawed. We. Must. Not. Ignore. This. We must push back, in every instance, every where, all the time.

When I read statements like this I think of those on conservative websites who like to call Obama things like "Bolshevik"--showing they know neither the president's values, nor anything about an actual group of people who called themselves Bolsheviks.

I know it's common to call people "puritans" and "fundamentalists" whose views have little to nothing in common with the puritans and the fundamentalists, historical groups who, for all their flaws, can hardly be honestly reduced to a mindset of revenge. If one is accusing people of being vengeful, and of having no other theological bona fides, seems to me you should do so directly, and not by associating them with some commonly disliked group.

I know that some would consider that mere quibbling, and say that terms like "puritan," "fundamentalist," "Bolshevik," "fascist" have taken on common secondary meanings, indicating an intense dislike of someone's religion or politics. Arguably so. I suppose what I object to about this is that they substitute name-calling for actually stating what one objects to.

As a non-Anglican of any stripe I have no desire to comment on the recent vote on women in the episcopate. But the complexity of the problem, especially the means of accomodating the minority without offending the majority, seems to me to be sufficiently difficult that I am doubtful about attributing the outcome to mere malice in the form of a secret motivation of revenge.

After a lifetime of hearing Christian salvation sold to people as a kind of spiritual protection racket ("believe in this or that will happen to you"), it's hard not to come to the conclusion that the world is to be divided into the Saved and the Lost, and that the destruction of the Lost will be the vindication of the Saved.I can't think of anything more divisive, or more malicious in intent.

I've talked a little about this with my friend rmj over at Adventus. I know there is more in Christianity than soteriology, salvation--there is a cosmic metaphysical construct, and a cosmic history, and there are ethics and cult and artistic expression--but I'm not sure how the idea of Christianity, at least as it appears in the scriptures, in the Fathers, in the writing of the saints, in our prayers and in the liturgy, makes any sense at all when the idea of salvation is taken from it. Jesus' very name means "Yah saves," given to him, we are told, because "He will save his people from their sins."

Now of course that idea can be corrupted into a sort of zero-sum competition, with winners and losers. But Jesus did talk about sheep and goats, not to initiate some sort of universal Super Bowl, but to let us know what sorts of things will save us and what sorts of things will destroy us.

(I understand the position that nothing will destroy us, that nothing can destroy us, that we are all predestined to glory, and of that I can say, I hope it's right, but I don't have confidence that it is so.)

There is much disagreement about what we must be saved from, and how we go about being saved from it, and what we are saved for. But I don't think our being in desparate need, and God meeting us in that need, necessarily constitutes a spiritual protection racket. Anyone who is genuinely crying for help from the abyss will take no pleasure in anyone else suffering the same fate, I think.

I understand the position that nothing will destroy us, that nothing can destroy us, that we are all predestined to glory, and of that I can say, I hope it's right, but I don't have confidence that it is so

Well rick, I'll just hold onto that confidence for you then, oh ye of little faith. ;-/

Seriously though, I really cannot make sense of a faith where God is less than one's hopes. Does.Not.Compute.

"I really cannot make sense of a faith where God is less than one's hopes."

I think I understand where you are coming from, JCF, but I would say that it's not so much a hope about God as a hope about humanity, and there our hopes often go disappointed.

I would agree with Doug that "The Kingdom of Christ is the only state with no compulsion." The one thing God cannot do is make someone love, to force anyone into the Kingdom of God who adamently will not go. That, perhaps, is my Catholic to his Protestant--I have been reading Erasmus and Luther, lately, and there is where Luther identified the great issue on which it all turned--the freedom of the will or the bondage of the will. I am one of those who continues to see it free, but the terrible consequence of that is that we remain free to oppress, to sin, to hate, to say no to God. Without that we are compelled to enter the kingdom. God loves us, but does not, cannot make us love him. I hope all of us can make that choice which God will not compel. But it is a hope.

As Doug points out in his thesis, it may be possible that rick allen is holding onto a hope, just not one of Salvation, but of condemnation.

It's always warm/fuzzy to imagine one's enemies "getting theirs" in Hell, or whatever. Yet, simple enlightened self-interest tells us that, if they are to be judged, so will I, and none of us will be in Paradise this, or any other, day.

This is how complicated it gets, I suppose. "Irresistable grace" is one of the "Five Points of Calvinism" asserted at the Synod of Dort. Actual, historical puritanism has not been without continuing influence.

I agree with Rick, and, contra Mark Brunson, I see no hint of a "warm/fuzzy" on Rick's part that his enemies will be getting theirs in Hell. Nor do I think this is an important component of Catholic (as in, undivided, patristic Christianity) thought - only an unintended corollary of it. That there are people like the one pictured here who feel that way, I have no doubt. As a matter of fact, that many individuals feel that way, I have no doubt; it's part of the sinful human condition. And I will say that I get more than a hint of it directed at the "anti-gay" contingent of our society by people who - seemingly - can't wait to see the looks on those people's faces when they die and are confronted by God. So, I believe this is as much a feature of the fundie standing on the corner as it is his targets.

None of us are immune to this kind of thinking. Our first error is in thinking we are, followed closely by thinking it's OK for us to think that way, because, obviously, we're on the side of the angels.

Back to the question of Hell, if we accept Christ's words, then it is unquestionable that some will refuse God and end up there - wherever or whatever "it" is. His teaching on this is quite explicit. But, with God as my witness, I have no desire to see anybody there, and I'm quite worried that I might end up there myself. I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way.

As to Fraser: "That's why they treat the Bible like some vast jigsaw – its truth residing in a complex process of making the pieces fit together and not with the picture it creates" - I agree completely.

Scott Lively issued this statement today about the explosion in Springfield, MA on November 23rd that destroyed a strip club and injured 20 people including many firefighters:

"For about two years I have been including imprecatory prayers in our church services and Bible studies at Holy Grounds Coffee House. Imprecatory prayers are Old Testament prayers for the defeat and destruction of the enemies of God and his people. A New Testament variation on these prayers is to ask God to save the people but destroy the institutions. Our prayers, part of our seven year campaign to re-Christianize the City of Springfield, have included an appeal to God to destroy the works of Satan in this city. We have specifically included the strip clubs in these prayers. Yesterday the three story Scores strip club on Worthington Street was completely obliterated in a gas explosion, right down to the ground. I believe this was the hand of God at work in answer to our prayers. We are giving Him all the glory and praise for this occurrence, since it is only by His power that any of our prayers can have any effect."

I agree with Rick, and, contra Mark Brunson, I see no hint of a "warm/fuzzy" on Rick's part that his enemies will be getting theirs in Hell

But rick's on your side sid, so of course, that's what you'd see.

And, yes, both sides feel great pleasure in the idea that the other side will get theirs. It is part of the human condition - as I noted - so, to say you don't have it . . . does that make you not human? There is a difference between what you will and what you desire. Denying something in yourself lets it control you.

Of course there's a Hell - several, in point of fact. We each build one, and each choose or reject it. It's ours and we are gods there - all alone, with all our anger and self-righteousness, to burn in that lake of fire which is our own desires. Doubtless, some will actually enjoy Hell, believing they've found freedom in the ability to suffer, fight and try to make others suffer. Most who choose Hell won't even notice they repeat it all again and again.

Mark, I certainly agree with you that each of us naturally wants justice for others and mercy for myself (and for my friends and relatives) (well, not for all my relatives). But that inescapable self-centeredness doesn't necessarily discredit asperations to overcome it. Otherwise everything is answerable with an ad hominem.

An example from the late presidential election. How many times did we hear that Obama just wants to keep power, that Romney just wants to help his rich friends. I think in both cases those claims were more or less true--no one seeks the most powerful office on earth without wanting power, including the power to help his friends. So what? We can't see into the heart of either. We judge their claims and policies and character based on our limited experience of what they have done and our evaluation of the rightness and reasonableness of what they propose. They may have more sinister motives--they must, really--but that's really not a good criterion for deciding whether one economic policy is superior to another.

So--getting back to our topic--I don't think it's quite accurate to say that "Puritans" act our of revenge. It's somewhat true, but so do "libertines" and "liberals" and everyone else. I don't know how many times I've been assured by people on the right that I only am attracted to socialism because of my envy of the rich.

And I agree with much of what you say about hell. The kingdom of heaven is not pie in the sky when we die. It is here among us; so is the kingdom of hell. I am sometimes asked, when someone particularly monstrous dies, whether I think he went to hell. My pat answer is always, "The question is not whether he went to hell when he died, but whether he got out before he died." It is then that my belief in purgation after death is most comforting--for them and for me.

Of course, but you are aware of the presence of that flaw, thus the aspiration, and, like faith and works, aspiration without action is meaningless.

This has been the basis of my online life as the "bad guy." I don't want people to choose Hell, and won't validate that choice, no matter how much my basest, darkest self enjoys the burning.

In the end, I think the problem is not of puritan and libertine, conservative or liberal, but of easy answers - starting with our easy answers about ourselves. I admire you, rick, and have said as much before - you are one of the few fearless people I've run into, liberal or conservative. I just like to keep you on your toes, as you do me on mine.

(And I really hate it when people tell me I just envy the rich and that's why I embrace socialism, as well - it's like "Yes or no - have you stopped beating your wife?" If I begin to explain, it gets dismissed as self-justification. Why do people not get it that it isn't always just about my wallet? Off topic - but it really struck a chord).

Words of Wisdom

Here being built by the Sidonian queenWas a great temple planned in Juno¹s honor,Rich in offerings and the godhead there,Steps led up to a sill of bronze, with brazenLintel, and bronze doors on groaning pins.Here in this grove new things that met his eyesCalmed Aeneas’ fear for the first time,Here for the first time he took heart to hopeFor safety, and to trust his destiny moreEven in affliction. It was while he walkedFrom one to another wall of the great templeAnd waited for the queen, staring amazedAt Carthaginian promise, at the handiworkOf artificers and the toil they spent upon it;He found before his eyes the Trojan battlesIn the Old War now known throughout the world--The great Atridae, Priam, and Achilles,Fierce in his rage at both sidesHere AeneasHalted and tears came, “What spot on the earth,”He said, “What region of the earth, Achates,Is not full of the story of our sorrow?Look, here is Priam. Even so far awayGreat Valor has due honor; they weep hereFor how the world goes, and our life that passesTouches their hearts. This fameInsures some kind of refuge.”--Virgil, from the Aeneid, translated by Robert Fitzgerald

Great masters who have shown mankindAn order it has yet to find,What if all pedants say of youAs personalities be true?All the more honor to you thenIf, weaker than some other men,You had the courage that survivesSoiled, shabby, egotistic lives,If poverty or ugliness,Ill-health or social unsuccessHunted you out of life to playAt living in another way;Yet the live quarry all the sameWere changed to huntsmen in the game,And the wild furies of the past,Tracked to their origins at last,Trapped in a medium’s artifice,To charity, delight, increase.Now large magnificent and calm,Your changeless presences disarmThe sullen generations, stillThe fright and fidget of the will,And to the growing and the weakYour final transformations speak,Saying to dreaming “I am deed.”To striving “Courage. I succeed”To mourning “I remain, Forgive.”And to becoming “I am. Live.”--WH Auden, from New Year's Letter, 1939

Art still has truth, take refuge there.--Matthew Arnold from “Memorial Verses”

We have art in order that we might not perish from truth.--Friedrich Nietzche

Those masterful images because completeGrew in pure mind, but out of what began?A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slutWho keeps the till. Now that my ladder’s goneI must lie down where all ladders start,In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.--W.B. Yeats

The camera cannot compete with a brush and canvas, as long as it can’t be used in heaven and hell.--Edvard Munch

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.--Oscar Wilde

Invention, it must be admitted, does not consist in creating out of the void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.--Mary Shelly, Introduction to Frankenstein

The artist is a dreamer who consents to dream of the real world.

--George Santayana

To see is to understand.--Leonardo da Vinci

The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.--Willem de Kooning

Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? It is the lord of astronomy and the maker of cosmography; it counsels and corrects all the arts of humanity; it moves men to the different parts of the world; it is the prince of mathematics, its sciences are certain; it has measured the heights and sizes of the stars, it has found the elements in their locations... has generated architecture, perspective, and the divine art of painting. Oh most excellent thing above all others created, what peoples, what tongues shall be those that can fully describe your true operation? This is the window of the human body, through which it mirrors its way and brings to fruition the beauty of the world, by which the soul is content to stay in its human prison.--Leonardo da Vinci

The artist begins to communicate before he is understood. --TS Eliot

But what, after all, was humanism if not a love of humankind, and by token also of political activity, rebellion against all that tended to defile or degrade our conception of humanity? He had been accused of exaggerating the importance of form. But he who cherished beauty of form did so because it enhanced human dignity--Thomas Mann from The Magic Mountain

...what would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are cast by objects and people. There is the shadow of my sword. But there are also shadows of trees and living creatures. Would you like to denude the earth of all the trees and all the living beings in order to satisfy your fantasy of rejoicing in the naked light?--Mikhail Bulgakov from The Master and Margarita

The Piazza Signoria is too stony to be brilliant. It has no grass, no flowers, no frescoes, no glittering walls of marble or comforting patches of ruddy brick. By an odd chance -- unless we believe in a presiding genius of place -- the statues that relieve its severity suggest, not the innocence of childhood nor the glorious bewilderment of youth, but the conscious achievements of maturity. Perseus and Judith, Hercules and Thusnelda, they have done or suffered something, and, though they are immortal, immortality has come to them after experience, not before. Here, not only in the solitude of Nature, might a hero meet a goddess, or a heroine a god.--E.M. Forster, from A Room With A View

To be an Error and to be Cast Out is Part of God's Design.--William Blake

Truth rests with God alone, and a little bit with me.--Yiddish proverb

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government only when it deserves it.--Mark Twain

Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.--Mark Twain

Humanity is a parade of fools, and not only am I in that parade, I'm carrying a banner.

--Mark Twain

In a world full of caterpillars, it takes balls to be a butterfly.-Anonymous Tranny.

Peace is more than the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.--Martin Luther King Jr.

An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.--Martin Luther King Jr.

Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.-- Thomas Paine

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself - that is my doctrine.” ― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws. --John Adams, letter to Jefferson, 1816

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is a duty.-- Oscar Romero, January 7, 1978

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.~~Abraham Lincoln

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will

-- Frederick Douglass

Live as though you will die tomorrow. Learn as though you will live forever.--Mohandas Gandhi

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.--Dag Hammarskjöld

If, as some say, God spanked the townFor being over frisky,Why did He burn the Churches downAnd save Hotaling's Whiskey?--Charles K. Field after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

There has never been a kingdom so given to so many civil wars as that of Christ.--Montesquieu

When they try to become angels, men become beasts.

--Montaigne

Kings and philosophers shit, and so do ladies.

--Montaigne

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

--Immanuel Kant

Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man,--Oliver Wendell Holmes

The God of Love will never withdraw our right to grief and infamy--WH Auden

Politics is the art of the possible.--Otto Von Bismarck

... the politics of the holy is the art of the impossible. It makes long-run compromise untenable.--Avishai Margalit

War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.

--Chris Hedges

The best live by legends. The average live by ideology. And the worst live by conspiracy theories.

--Hannah Arendt

Laws, like the spider’s webs, catch the small flies and let the large ones go free.-Balzac

If you had enough courage, you wouldn't need a reputation.--Rhett Butler to Scarlett O'Hara

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

--attributed to Philo of Alexandria

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.--Anatole France

I am aware that there are many who wince at a distinction between property and persons--who hold both sacrosanct. Myviews are not so rigid. A life is sacred. Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights andrespect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on; it is not man.

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.

While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.--Eugene V. Debs, 1918

祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。娑羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらわす。おごれる人も久しからず、唯春の夜の夢のごとし。たけき者も遂にはほろびぬ、偏に風の前の塵に同じ。The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.--opening of the Heike Monogatari, 13th century Japan

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.--Pascal

"I believe in the sun,even when it is not shining.I believe in love,even when I don't feel it.I believe in God,even when there is silence." --Words scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany by a Jew hiding from Nazi persecution.

There's a Christ for a whore and a Christ for a punk,

There's a Christ for a pickpocket and a drunk,

There's a Christ for every sinner, but there's one thing there ain't,

There ain't no Christ for any cut-price saint.

--James Fenton, from "Cutthroat Christ"

God made man in His own image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment (Mark Twain)

Men never do evil so willingly and so happily as when they do it for the sake of conscience.

--Pascal

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963.

Dr. Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle, so that he should not be one of those who hold their peace but should bear witness in favor of those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done to them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.Nonetheless, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be of one final victory. It could only record of what had had to be done. and assuredly would have to be done again in the never ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive to their utmost to be healers.And indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.--Albert Camus, conclusion of The Plague

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.--Mohandas Gandhi

Faith is never identical with piety.--Karl Barth

"Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him."~ Thomas Merton

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travellers at midnight.--Martin Luther King Jr.

Oh God, If I worship Thee in fear of hell, burn me in hell; and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise; but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine everlasting beauty!--Rabiah al Basri

Live this life and do what ever is done in a spirit of thanksgiving. Abandon attempts to achieve security, they are futile. Give up the search for wealth, it is demeaning. Quit the search for salvation, it is selfish. And come to comfortable rest in the certainty that those who participate in this life with an attitude of thanksgiving will receive its full promise.

-- John McQuiston II

IF I were but mere dust and ashes I might speak unto the Lord, for the Lord’s hand made me of this dust, and the Lord’s hand shall re-collect these ashes; the Lord’s hand was the wheel upon which this vessel of clay was framed, and the Lord’s hand is the urn in which these ashes shall be preserved. I am the dust and the ashes of the temple of the Holy Ghost, and what marble is so precious? But I am more than dust and ashes: I am my best part, I am my soul.--John Donne

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and His hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to another. ― John Donne

Christ has no body now but yoursNo hands, no feet on earth but yoursYours are the eyes through which He lookscompassion on this worldChrist has no body now on earth but yours.--Teresa of Avila

God is the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love between them.--Saint Augustine

Again I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.-Ecclesiates 9:11-12

What shall I bring when I approach the Lord? How shall I stoop before God on high? Am I to approach him with whole offerings or yearling calves? Will the Lord accept thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my eldest son for my own wrongdoing, my children for my own sin?God has told you what is good, and what is it that the Lord asks of you?Only to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?-Micah 6:6-8

Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of man, and divine weakness stronger than man's strength. My brothers, think what sort of people you are, whom God has called. Few of you are men of wisdom, by any human standard; few are powerful or highly born. Yet, to shame the wise, God has chosen what the world counts folly, and to shame the strong, God has chosen what the world counts weakness. he has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order. And so there is no place for human pride in the presence of God. You are in Christ Jesus by God's own act, for God has made him our wisdom; he is our righteousness; in him we are consecrated and set free.-1 Corinthians: 25-30

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.--Luke 4:18-19

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’--Mark 12: 28-32

And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

--Job 19:26

Because I live, so shall you live also--John 14:19-20

A Prayer Attributed to Saint Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.Where there ishatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon;wherethere is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith;wherethere is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light;wherethere is sadness, joy.Grant that we may not so much seek tobe consoled as to console;to be understood as to understand;to be loved as to love.For it is in giving that we receive;it isin pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that weare born to eternal life.Amen.

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Metta Karuna Prayer

Oneness of Life and Light,Entrusting in your Great Compassion,May you shed the foolishness in myself,Transforming me into a conduit of Love.May I be a medicine for the sick and weary,Nursing their afflictions until they are cured;May I become food and drink,

During time of famine,May I protect the helpless and the poor,May I be a lamp,

For those who need your Light,May I be a bed for those who need rest,and guide all seekers to the Other Shore.May all find happiness through my actions,and let no one suffer because of me.Whether they love or hate me,Whether they hurt or wrong me,May they all realize true entrusting,Through Other Power,

The Prayer of Eleanor Roosevelt

Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new.